Causes and Effects the “It-Can’t-Happen-To-Me ” Mentality The “it-can’t-happen-to-me” mentality is a way of thinking in which people see or know that things happen to other people, but they believe that nothing of the sort could ever happen to them. We all have this mentality at some point, but some people are unable to get past it. The “it can’t happen to me” mentality is dangerous and leads to people, particularly young people, taking part in dangerous activities. There are many causes and effects of this mentality. A cause of the “it-can’t-happen-to-me” mentality is being sheltered by your parents. When parents shelter their kids or try to protect them from all the real things that actually happen to people in the world they are doing them a disservice. It’s the responsibility of the mothers’ and fathers’ to prepare their children for the real world and everything it has to offer. They have to prepare them for the good and the bad, but by sheltering them they leave them unprepared. The children who are being sheltered become reliant on their fathers’ and mothers’ and are unable to handle anything without them. While this is a big cause of having this mentality it isn't the only one. …show more content…
This mentality is only made stronger by being young and naïve. Carl Benedict, who wrote an essay on steroid use stated “young people never feel threatened”,and “ Part of being young is feeling invulnerable” (Benedict 425). This in essence means that being young and feeling invulnerable seems to go hand in hand. The real problem is that when you are growing up and have never experienced and tragedy or really anything bad happening to you or the people you love, the feeling of invulnerability or the “it-can’t-happen-to-me” mentality that comes with being young can begin to grow and can lead you down a dangerous